At the Goodwood Festival of Speed last weekend it would have been easy to spend the whole day milling around the paddocks and classic displays and to have ignored the new car displays, but I’m glad I didn’t because Land Rover had one of the most interesting show stands I’ve seen in years.

The company had splashed the cash and built a very mock production line that showed the Discovery being assembled. What was really fascinating was the fact that the Discovery’s unusual T5 architecture had finally been laid bare.

When the T5-based Disco 3 was launched in 2004, much was made of the car’s substantial 2.5-tonne weight. This was a result of the T5’s belt and braces approach, using both a separate chassis and a structural monocoque body.

The Goodwood display made crystal clear the reasons for the Disco’s immense off-road ability. The huge longitudinal chassis legs that run from front to back and the massive subframes give the Discovery’s suspension the ultra-rigid base it needs to work properly in extreme conditions. You won’t have full confidence in off-road conditions if the wheel control is compromised by chassis flex.

The decision to also use a structurally very strong body on top of this high-tech structural ‘ladder’ is not surprising when you consider that work began on the T5 around the turn of the century and not long after the Ford Explorer scandal in the US. A combination of too-low tyre pressures in compromised tyre design too often combined to cause sudden blow-outs. This caused the Explorers - tall vehicles with unsophisticated chassis designs - to flip. The resulting impact would cause the roof pillars - which were not structural - to collapse often with fatal results.

All of which makes perfect sense when building a really serious off-roader. The serious downside is the weight and the consequent impact on fuel economy which, since the T5 architecture was conceived, become of vital importance in all global markets. And there’s another, in-house, reason why the T5 will start looking even more out of step with real-world motoring. Not too far into the future, Land Rover will unveil the new all-aluminium Range Rover.

This is expected to weigh in at around 2000kg, about the same as the Porsche Cayenne and a good 450kg lighter than the Discovery. The all-new Range Rover Sport, also based on the new aluminium chassis, is also not too far away. Which is why this clever display at Goodwood showed such foresight on the part of Land Rover.

With its lightweight sister cars on the horizon, the company is moving to re-position the Discovery as a proper trans-continental all-terrain vehicle and away from its previous role as a kind of over-sized family car for the affluent. Indeed, the Disco that recently spent 50 days driving from Birmingham to Beijing was also at Goodwood, underlining the car’s extraordinary ability.

So when the new, more metropolitan and more executive-biased Range Rovers appear and people asked Land Rover why the Discovery is so heavy, the company’s answer will be simple: because this is our ultimate off-roader.

Join the debate

Anyone who has driven one of these off road or towed serious loads will know that in those situations fuel efficiency is of not much importance. These cars are rock solid in those two situations and I understand a bit more now why. Credit to the designers for not compromising and credit to Landrover if they intend to stay in this niche as all others are exiting it by building faux 4x4's.

As far as the journey that you under took was concerned I am not convinced. What is need is a comparison of some kind, with some thing that follows the Haflinger off road school of thought ( see www.haflinger4wheeldriveclub.org/magazine.htm )

This is the old car which dates back to 2004 when the average large 4x4 was 2.3 tonnes to 2.7 tonnes in weight. Presumably, there is also a new Discovery just around the corner, which will borrow heavily from the Range Rover chassis technology and bring the new Disco down to just over 2 tones too? Whatever happens it won't rely on this out of date technology.

The achilles heel of the Discovery continues to be reliability. They are also hugely expensive to fix when they do go wrong. A friend's 4 year old (45,000 mile) Disco broke down 300 miles away from home and cost thousands to mend.... I know people will be lucky and have reliable ones, but I am amazed by how many go wrong and what it costs to put them right.

I enjoyed the stand too, but the aforementioned 'Birmingham to Beijing' car was spoiled by a faux coating of mud spray that completely undermined its authenticity.

It's nice to see battle-scarred, unwashed cars at the FoS - the current-year Le Mans cars always look ace with that effect, just a few weeks after the race. But rather than be as haphazardly mucky as it probably was at the end of the journey, the Discovery had clearly been evenly sprayed with muddy water that was too delicate to be real. There was no splashing around the wheelarches, and no clods of earth or gumph on the tyres.

If they were trying to demonstrate the hardiness of the Discovery after such a trek, it didn't work, because this treatment called into question whether or not it was actually the car that had done the trip.

Glad you enjoyed the stand, the purpose was to recreate the authenticity of the brand whilst stabilising the technological aspects of its build. The stand may not have been heaving but those that were interacting with the stand was the target audience; machanic, car fanatic off roaders who are passionate about manufacturer engineering with plus 1's. As the orginal 4x4, the exhibition highlighted the innovative strength and design of the Land Rover Discovery tech- what goes into making a REAL 4x4- to create an affiliation between drivers and car. Pleased that @PhilM4000 gained broader understanding, it did its job! Did anyone see Land Rovers hospitality suite? Built that too.

...I would think from a technical point of view or within the rarified environs of Automotive show stand designers and constructors, the L-R stand was brilliant....where it counted - attracting and retaining visitors to the stand in order to encourage orders- it was a failure....I presume you noticed the crowds on the Audi stand...again!

Sorry to be so blunt, but unfortunately the auto business is about shifting metal...it is by this alone in the end by which you are judged, not the "innovative strength and design of the L-R tech".

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